THE impact of COVID-19 on global livability has been absolutely devastating. Well over a year into the pandemic, ongoing health crises, border closures and lockdowns are continuing to affect millions of people around the world. But some destinations have fared much better than others in managing the virus, meaning those who live there were able to get back to some semblance of normal life reasonably early on. New Zealand has been significantly praised for its handling of the crisis so it’s perhaps no surprise that one of its cities has been named the world’s most livable city for 2021. Auckland came out on top on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Index of 140 cities around the world thanks to its success in containing the pandemic quickly, enabling restrictions to be lifted early on. The annual list did not go ahead in 2020, but Austria’s Vienna, number one in both 2018 and 2019, has completely dropped out of the top 10 after being heavily effected by COVID, and now sits in 12th place. New Zealand’s capital Wellington was fourth on this year’s list, tying with Japan’s Tokyo, and four cities of Australia, where tough border controls have been in place throughout the crisis, occupy the top 10. Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane came in third, sixth and 10th place respectively, while Melbourne tied with Switzerland’s Geneva at No. 8. “The cities that have risen to the top of the rankings this year are largely the ones that have taken stringent measures to contain the pandemic,” Upasana Dutt from The Economist Intelligence Unit said in a statement. Meanwhile, Tokyo wasn’t the only Japanese city near the top of the list. Osaka, which was No. 4 in 2019, has moved up to second place. Canada, which had three cities, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto near the top two years ago, has dropped out of the top 10 entirely. At No. 16, Vancouver is the highest Canadian city on the list. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the overall global average livability score has dropped by seven points when compared with figures before the pandemic. The index takes into account more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors spanning five broad categories: stability (25 percent), health care (20 percent), culture and environment (25 percent), education (10 percent), and infrastructure (20 percent). Despite some social restrictions still being in place in Switzerland, the Central European country has seen two its cities move up, with Zurich and Geneva rising from 11th and 14th to seventh and eighth places. While there have been many significant differences towards the top, very little has changed at the bottom of the list. While Damascus sits in last place once again “as the effects of the civil war in Syria continue to take their toll,” it’s closely followed by Nigeria’s Lagos, Papua New Guinea’s Port Moresby and Bangladesh’s Dhaka, which were all in either similar or identical spots in 2019. These cities have consistently performed badly over the years due to the instability caused by ongoing civil unrest and military conflicts, among other issues.(SD-Agencies) | 